Saltburn to Redcar and the mouth of the Tees

We were last in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in 2008, approximately halfway along the Cleveland Way. I liked the town then and I still like it now. It was built as a Victorian seaside resort and has been through some hard times since then. We'd travelled to Saltburn by train yesterday, via Ely, Peterborough and Darlington. It was a very straightforward journey, with the final leg passing through several of the locations, some very industrial, that we will be revisiting in the next few days. We stayed overnight at The Spa Hotel, in a room up in the eves with good views of the sea. We'd pottered around the town yesterday evening photographing the pier and the Cliff Railway, wandering along the promenade and onto the pier, then stopping for a pleasant meal at Alessi's Italian Restaurant. It was very busy, perhaps because of at least one child's birthday party, or perhaps because they have a happy hour!

We woke early to wonderful light over the sea and Hunt Cliff. We had a nice breakfast (smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for me) then left The Spa Hotel and bought lunch provisions from Sainsburys by the station.

We left Saltburn by way of Hazel Grove (the valley to the north of the town) and climbed up onto the cliffs the other side. It was low tide so we could have just walked along the beach, bit the cliff walking was excellent, with views that gave a very different impression depending on the direction in which you looked - ahead to the steel works at Redcar, or to the windfarm, also at Redcar, back to Saltburn and Hunt Cliff, or inland to Errington Wood and the North York Moors. The path became slightly rough and then, as we reached Marske-by-the-Sea there was a very steep descent at Church Howle. We got out my walking poles to help me, but it was still too difficult, so I sat down and slithered down that way; one pair of muddy trousers!

We watched fishing boats being brought ashore by tractor. We returned to the esplanade in Redcar, at first impression a typical slightly down at heel holiday resort, but which is trying hard to brighten itself up, for example with attractive metal 'postcards', and with older traditions (e.g. fish being sold direct from the boats, parked with their tractors on the seafront) adding to the character of the place. We had some difficulty finding the public toilets, so we did a loop around down a pedestrianised shopping street, then we stopped for lunch near some large model penguins!

We walked out through Coatham - there is a coastal alternative here - and Warrenby - there may be a coastal alternative here, around the golf course, but this would omit the point at which the Teesdale Way heads inland, tomorrow's walk and shown on the OS map as the start of the Teesdale Way. We passed various industrial units, one selling caravans, and over a disused railway bridge. The fact that we were being passed by dust carts was explained by the depot at the end of the road, and we turned right onto a dusty track towards the steel works with two mysteries remaining. Firstly, we'd thought that the steelworks closed down some years ago, but parts of the plant appeared to be operational. Secondly, why were so many cars coming this way?

Here's the steelworks story. The Redcar steel plant was founded by Dorman Long in 1917 and steel produced here was used in the production of, inter alia, the Tyne bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dorman Long was absorbed into the nationalised British Steel, and on denationalisation it formed part of Corus. The plant closed in 2009 with the loss of 1700 jobs. That was the last I had heard. However the plant is operational again, after being bought by the Thai company Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI). The blast furnace was re-lit in 2012, with much celebration of the re-creation of around 1000 jobs. Apparently the plant remains loss making so I wonder what its future will hold.

[Note added in November 2015: sadly, the steelworks closed again in October].

Our path headed towards the steelworks then skirted around it, with regular Corus notices reminding us of the risk of a £50,000 fine and/or imprisonment for fly tipping. The view of the steelworks to the left was quite interesting though very industrial. To our right, we first passed a golf course, then a large area of scrubland, with occasional ponds and paths leading off into the dunes. The wind farm was visible beyond. Some of the cars that were passing us were stopping here, presumably to enable their occupants to walk out towards the dunes or to watch the wildlife on the scrubland.

Past the steelworks we turned right, now with dunes to our left too, and occasional views to the river beyond. We caught glimpses of the lighthouse on the breakwater in the distance and Richard also spotted the work 'cafe' painted in white on the roof of a building we were walking towards. No such luck! When we got there, the cafe, which was in a building alongside a little harbour area, seemed to have long since ceased to operate as such. However we were now approaching the breakwater. We passed a little settlement of fishermen’s huts and reached an area where many of the cars were parked. Some of the people were heading onto the breakwater fishing (although I think it is technically private), others were just pottering about. The turbines in the wind farm felt so close that you could almost touch them and there were good views across the estuary to Hartlepool.

We stopped for a snack and then retraced our steps to Redcar. We got back slightly before 4pm, which was the check-in time at the B&B, so we went down to the seafront at Coatham and watched a coastguard exercise. We then walked inland to Springdale House, a delightful B&B overlooking the cricket club on Nelson Terrace [in 2020, now closed]. We had a much appreciated cup of tea in the garden. In the evening we had fish and chips at “The Little Chip”, apparently the UK’s oldest fish and chip shop, having been established in 1897. We then went to a supermarket and bought a bottle of wine and some raspberries which we ate back at Springdale House.

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